7 months ago I made a “climate change catastrophe” comment on Facebook. Someone said “what catastrophe?” I explained that, “just because your house hasn’t burned down or been flooded, you have food and you still have water coming out of your faucet, doesn’t mean climate change isn’t real.” I ended with “You’re an idiot.” They turned me into Facebook for bullying, then Facebook bullied me. I stopped using Facebook, now just messenger for chatting with friends around the world.
Europe is promoting using the train more, so people will avoid the short airline flights, so Ljubljana-Vienna-Paris. I can bring my bike as far as Zurich then, no more places for bikes, only folding bikes. So I turned my folding bike into an E-bike. I switched to taking the bus from Ljubljana to Paris, 4 stops, no changes and only 35euro. It was 26 hours on the trains + changes and only 18 hours by bus. I plan on visiting some friends in France then riding the French Atlantic coast, train to Madrid. After that, no more reservations just camping and biking on the fly. Here in Slovenia, you can bring a bike on nearly every train. I wrote the European Union about the bike unfriendliness on it’s trains. In order to change the law I had to get signatures from 10 different EU countries to have the no bikes on train policy changed. Instead, I made my folding Bike Friday into an E-bike.
I’ve gotten to know people around Europe and France is no exception. I met Carole in America, after she married a friend from Portland. I met Vincent while bike touring Albania & Greece. Carole is remarried and Vincent is now married. We all biked their local areas (of course!).
CAROLES BIKE TOUR
Visiting Vincent after 6 years, we started where we left off, rocking the good times again. He married Lea, who’s family is a generational goat farmer and cheese maker. They won best goat cheese in Paris 2020! Vincent & Lea have a 2 year old, Masuu. He was the best kid ever, never saw the claimed “Devil Child”. Vincent’s old roommate has greenhouse’s, so I biked out one day and visited. I wish I had had that kind of business. We also spent time weeding the flower gardens, just hanging is kinda boring.
Time to start biking. I rode Pompaire to Poitiers, to camp. There was a 25-30 km head wind, all day. Needless to say, the battery was drained. I saw any empty outlet at the farmers market, plugged in and went to lunch. Next day rode into town, folded up the bike and had 10 minutes to spare before catching the train to Bordeaux.
I hope you enjoyed the first blog of the year. I will keep in updated. Most of this was written with my phone.
NEXT: visiting Bordeaux, biking the Velo 1 route down the French Atlantic coast, top 5 route🚲
I do love these blog posts. Good to see you back at it again. Spring looks so amazing there. Your setup is a model for anyone else thinking of traveling around by bike.